The history of the cowboy hard hat starts with Bret Atkins, a machine-tool sales rep from Bakersfield, California, who invented it in the mid-1990s. His design, sold as the Western Outlaw, was patented, certified to the ANSI hard hat standard and became the model that every western-style hard hat since has followed.
Hard hat history before the cowboy hard hat
The hard hat itself is about a century old. In 1919, E.W. Bullard of the E.D. Bullard Company in California patented the “Hard-Boiled hat,” made from steamed canvas, glue and black paint. The U.S. Navy soon asked Bullard to make protective caps for shipyard workers, and the company later added an internal suspension, the same basic idea every hard hat uses today.
For the next seventy-odd years, hard hats came in two shapes: the cap style with a short front bill and the full-brim style. Neither looked anything like the hats worn on ranches and oil leases across the West.
“Put on your hard hat”
Bret Atkins sold machine tools to industrial customers around Bakersfield, and he always wore a white straw cowboy hat. As reported by the Orange County Register in 1998, every time he walked onto a work site the loudspeaker would tell him to put on his hard hat. He would go back to his pickup for the dome-shaped hat in his safety bag, and when he swapped hats with greasy hands from handling machinery, his straw hat would pick up grease marks on the brim.
One day he came home and told his wife, Julie, that he was going to invent a cowboy hard hat.
Eleven tries
It was harder than it sounded. Atkins worked out of his garage, starting with a fiberglass model that looked exactly like a cowboy hat but did not pass testing. The effort took about three years and, by his own account, pushed him close to bankruptcy. According to safety retailer PK Safety, it took eleven attempts and roughly $80,000 in ANSI testing fees before a design passed.
The result was the Western Outlaw: a hard hat shaped like a western hat, certified to ANSI Z89.1, and accepted as compliant head protection. Atkins received U.S. Patent 5,713,083 for the design.
From 15 a day to worldwide
Early production was small, around 15 hats a day. The break came when Katie Couric, then host of NBC’s Today show, saw a friend of the Atkins family wearing a Western Outlaw in the crowd outside the studio. Couric wore it on air and told viewers it was an OSHA-approved western hard hat.
Orders followed. One Australian distributor ordered 10,000 hats, drawn by the sun protection of the wide brim. Atkins found a manufacturer to scale up production, and in 1998 the Western Outlaw was named safety invention of the year, with Atkins honored as inventor of the year at an invention convention in Long Beach, California.
The cowboy hard hat today
The Western Outlaw is still made today under the Jackson Safety brand, and the design has been joined by western-style hard hats from other safety manufacturers, including OccuNomix. Modern versions follow the same pattern Atkins set:
- An HDPE or similar plastic shell shaped like a cattleman or pinch-front hat
- A wide brim all the way around for sun and rain
- A 4- or 6-point suspension with a ratchet or pin-lock headband
- ANSI Z89.1 certification, usually Type I with Class G or Class E protection
What started as one salesman’s fix for a greasy hat brim is now standard gear on ranches, oil and gas leases and many construction sites. To see how today’s models are rated, read cowboy hard hat ANSI ratings explained. For the basics, see what is a cowboy hard hat? or browse the cowboy hard hats hub.
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Frequently asked questions
Who invented the cowboy hard hat?
Bret Atkins, a machine-tool sales rep from Bakersfield, California, invented the cowboy hard hat in the mid-1990s. His design was sold as the Western Outlaw.
Why was the cowboy hard hat invented?
Atkins was tired of swapping his white straw cowboy hat for a dome-shaped hard hat on job sites and getting grease on the brim. He set out to make a hard hat that looked like a cowboy hat.
Is the Western Outlaw hard hat still made?
Yes. The Western Outlaw is sold today under the Jackson Safety brand.
When was the first hard hat made?
E.W. Bullard patented the Hard-Boiled hat, made of steamed canvas, glue and black paint, in 1919. It is widely considered the first commercial hard hat.